Fatal Abstraction

Software was supposed to radically improve society. Outdated mechanical systems would be easily replaced; programs like PowerPoint would make information flow more freely; social media platforms like Facebook would bring people together; and generative AI would solve the world's greatest ills. Yet in practice, few of the systems we looked to with such high hopes have lived up to their fundamental mandate. In fact, in too many cases they've made things worse, exposing us to immense risk at the societal and the individual levels. How did we get to this point?

In Fatal Abstraction, Darryl Campbell shows that the problem is "managerial software": programs created and overseen not by engineers but by professional managers with only the most superficial knowledge of technology itself. The managerial ethos dominates the modern tech industry, from its globe-spanning giants all the way down to its trendy startups. It demands that corporate leaders should be specialists in business rather than experts in their company's field; that they manage their companies exclusively through the abstractions of finance; and that profit margins must take priority over developing a quality product that is safe for the consumer and beneficial for society. These corporations rush the development process and package cheap, unproven, potentially dangerous software inside sleek and shiny new devices. As Campbell demonstrates, the problem with software is distinct from that of other consumer products, because of how quickly it can scale to the dimensions of the world itself, and because its inner workings resist the efforts of many professional managers to understand it with their limited technical background.

A former tech worker himself, Campbell shows how managerial software fails, and when it does what sorts of disastrous consequences ensue, from the Boeing 737 MAX crashes to a deadly self-driving car to PowerPoint propaganda, and beyond. Yet just because the tech industry is currently breaking its core promise does not mean the industry cannot change, or that the risks posed by managerial software should necessarily persist into the future. Campbell argues that the solution is tech workers with actual expertise establishing industry-wide principles of ethics and safety that corporations would be forced to follow. Fatal Abstraction is a stirring rebuke of the tech industry's current managerial excesses, and also a hopeful glimpse of what a world shaped by good software can offer.

Fatal Abstraction is an electrifying and incisive book that offers an insider's perspective on the tech industry...exposes the forces rotting the core of today's tech industry: unchecked financialization that destroys innovation, eroding ethics, and declining user experience, all in a reckless pursuit of perpetual growth and market dominance.--Taylor Lorenz, author of Extremely Online and founder of User Mag
I read Fatal Abstraction in a single sitting, gripped by both fascination and a creeping sense of dread over just how badly things can go when tech executives are too unimaginative or distracted by profit to think through the real-world implications of their products. Darryl Campbell's deeply researched book draws a clear line from notorious examples like Uber's self-driving cars to lesser-known ones such as the Burmese military's weaponization of Facebook in the Rohingya genocide. Most chilling of all is the chapter on PowerPoint, which Campbell argues is not just an easy-to-mock corporate tool, but a platform for dangerously oversimplified thinking or even outright propaganda. Campbell, a tech veteran himself, also offers a framework by which developers and other frontline tech workers can curb their bosses' worst instincts. For the sake of my nervous system and the world's well-being, I hope they will take up his challenge.--Kristi Coulter, author of Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career
From startups to Big Tech, self-driving cars to AI, the sky-high promises have been undercut by the industry's reliance on rigid corporate structures. In Fatal Abstraction, Darryl Campbell combines reporting, research, and his personal experience working in tech to diagnose this fundamental problem--and its very human toll. Smart and often funny, Campbell's book is rich with unsparing detail, and offers a glimpse into a widespread problem that is surprising and urgent.--Kevin Nguyen, author of My Documents and New Waves and features editor at The Verge
In Fatal Abstraction, Darryl Campbell makes the case that our safety and possibly our souls have been sold out to the combination of an ideology called managerialism and faulty software. He shows beyond a doubt that large corporations aren't equipped to understand the dangers of technology, and suggests an alternative to managerialism that he says can stop Big Tech from creating another high-stakes disaster.--Cathy O'Neil, New York Times bestselling author of Weapons of Math Destruction and The Shame Machine
In the spirit of Bad Blood and The Accidental Billionaires, Darryl Campbell pulls back the curtain on the mythology of Big Tech as infallible and software as savior. He also shows how armies of ambivalent or powerless techies in the trenches may hold the power to change things.--Neal Thompson, author of The First Kennedys and A Curious Man

Darryl Campbell has worked at Amazon, Uber, Expedia, and Tinder, among other companies. His writing has appeared in The Verge, Vulture, and GQ. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

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